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Friday, August 29, 2014

I seem to have a thing for linking monsters and babies together. I created a new baby card using lawn fawn's new monster mash set (click!) and now I'm showing off a first birthday party with a preppy monster theme:

This party was so fun to create. I imagine a little boy with unruly curls wearing an argyle bowtie to match the decorations. Sidebar: I don't usually create parties that have absolutely nothing to do with my kids, so this one had them entirely confused. Who's turning one? Is this for someone's birthday? Do we still get to eat the cupcakes?

First off, the invite. It's for a wee little one, so why shouldn't the invite be tiny as well? It's only 3x5 inches and perfectly whimsical. I chose to handwrite all of the labels, but you could always design and print something on your computer. All of the decorations feature the same focal design: the frame from sweater weather (where I hand-cut the inside oval, since the dies hadn't arrived at the time!) and the 3-eyed monster from monster mash, decked out in a party hat and bow-tie.

Wondering what to serve at a preppy monster party?

Stinky feet sandwiches. Bonus points if you use a foot cookie cutter. I folded a journaling card die in half for all of the food labels.Tip: I stamped an entire sheet of white cardstock with the argyle pattern and then die-cut the best parts for all of my decorations. My shaky hands mean that lining up patterns isn't always the easiest thing for me to do!

For dessert, eyeball cupcakes.

I stuck a few blue smarties for eyes on top of the frosting - nothing easier:

A few drops of blue food coloring to jazz up the bottles of water help to add some pops of color to the party table.

The label that goes with the water bottles reads monster slime. The kids loved that one!

For the favors, I slipped blue and yellow gumballs into plastic tubes and tied them together with a monster thanks tag.

My favorite part of this whole party is the banner. I didn't have the dies yet, so I had to resort to masking to create the look I wanted. (Did I say resort to masking? I think we all know this was my first choice all along, haha.)

I'm on the lawn fawn blog today too, and if you click there you'll find a photo tutorial for how to create the banner panels, with the cute little monster peeking out from behind the frame.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Even though I especially love the frame (click! to see the lovely frame) I used all of the tiny folliage to make a gift ensemble:

The little chipmunk from "joy to the woods" works so well in a fall setting! I used the leaves and acorn from sweater weather to build a wreath around him in shades of mustard and burnt orange and navy.

Here's a secret: my only navy ink was way too light when I stamped the leaves, so I went over the stamped images with a copic marker to bring it to the richer shade I wanted. It matches the patterned paper much better this way.

I love the goodie bag die. It's a snap to put together and it looks so cute when assembled using double-sided patterned paper! It's like a bag with a snazzy liner.

That's all for me, but there's always way more to see on the lawn fawn blog!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Hi and welcome back to another day of lawn fawn's august inspiration week. Today, it's all about the papers, the flair, the woodgrain notecards, the sequins and wood veneer found in the sweater weather collection!

I tried to show off a few of the new patterns in my paper-pieced goodie bag. Aren't they cute? I cut and assembled the new goodie bag die in white, but added a fun splash of the bright argyle to the front. That involved several steps: I first die-cut the argyle with a stitched rectangle die, then ran just the tip through the machine to get the same pinked-edge-top as the goodie bag. Finally, I die-cut a circle into the layer, so that I could arrange my scene inside.

The rest was much easier to put together: I die cut a few rolling hills for the kitty to rest on, paper-pieced her (giving her a bow from the new monster mash set) and made an original sentiment from 2 different stamps in the spooktacular set.

A bow in the new orchid twine finishes it all off. I hope you like it!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Hi there, and welcome back to another day of lawn fawn's august inspiration week! Today we're showing off the adorable set "monster mash" and it's coordinating dies.

I went for a baby card this time around, spelling hello with the new finley letter dies and popping in a smiling monster in place of the "o."

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the lawn fawn blog today - click!

In other news, we're back from vacation now! We drove straight through from VA beach back home to our little Montreal suburb in under 13 hours, with 3 kids in the backseat. whew! Snacks, snacks, and so many movies to keep Maia happy. The house smelled stale when we first walked in, after more than 2 weeks gone. And I miss the beach:

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Hi there! the Mama Elephant team is showing off the carnival cupcakes companion set, carnival toppers. You can't really have one without the other, they work so well together. And look! I'm finally featuring the cupcakes.

The bunny is having a party! I stamped the bigger bunny from carnival cupcakes, masked him and stamped the cupcake so it looks like it sits in behind him a bit.

Then, I masked the cupcake and stamped the lolli stick from carnival toppers, and fit the smaller bunny into the scalloped topper. SO CUTE.

I used the tiny dot image as confetti, and stamped it in rainbow colors all around.

I stamped the balloon and then hand-drew the balloon string so it looks like the bigger bunny is holding on.

Aside: I took the pictures at different times, can you tell? After taking the full card picture, I decided I didn't like that I could still see the bunny's head outline under the party hat so I paper-pieced the image and took some close-ups.

I love this sentiment.

I hope you like what I've created! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today!

Once again, I've left out the cupcakes and used the lion image. If you could see me rolling my eyes right now... here's the thing: when you are trying to get ready for a 2 week vacation, and dreaming of dipping your toes in the sand and hearing the roar of waves breaking... you might just look at the lion image already clinging to the stamp block and think it would be a great idea to use him again.

I actually really love this card, and thought it would be cute to make a set like this, but with a different animal on each card.... too bad time ran out. Wouldn't that be cute, though? A card full of bears or bunnies? I still have plans to stamp those :)

I stamped the lion on a piece of cardstock, the same size as the card-base (I hate it when copic coloring shows through, so this is how I usually do things) and colored all of the lions identically. I then used a smoky, light blue marker to color all of the area around and between lions. It makes it look more like a print that way, which I love. I sponged all of the edges in a soft brown ink and then popped up a hello greeting (from everyday greetings) to add a touch of interest and texture. The hello bubble is covered in glossy accents.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today - click!

Also, there is a card coming tomorrow that really does feature the cupcakes! ha.

Friday, August 15, 2014

It's time for the Mama Elephant August Stampede!The new release is live and available for purchase in the store.Just a quick note from me before we get all excited and I forget to say: I'm doing a half-release with Mama Elephant this month, so you will only see my face pop up for half of the stamp highlight days, while our family enjoys a few weeks of sun and sand in Virginia.And now, what was I saying before? oh yeah, STAMPEDE:

I used the new set Carnival Cupcakes - it is the cutest thing ever, and designed by one of my favorite illustrators, Torico. I have a few Birdie Brown digital stamps that I purchased through her Etsy store, when that was still in existence. Seriously, she is amazing. I had the pleasure of working with another of her new stamp sets, while I was guesting for MFT this month.I decided to pair the lion from Carnival Cupcakes with the ball image from Nursery Deco. He screamed circus to me - so I made it happen:

I masked the lion to be able to balance him onto the ball, and stuck a cupcake topper flag behind him (but here, it's a circus flag) so he could casually greet you... and he's a party lion, with his birthday hat. just because :) The stripes on the card base were painted on with the chisel tip of a red copic marker. I love that they are imperfect.I hope you like him as much as I do! This stamp set is so versatile, and it goes beyond all the cute things you can do with cupcakes! As always, there's a giveaway! To celebrate the new release, Mama Elephant is giving away one of each of the new stamp sets released. Winners will be chosen at random from the Stampeding blogs and will be announced on the last day of the stamp highlights. You have 3 chances to win, just leave a separate comment for each:

Thursday, August 14, 2014

This is my last post for MFT, a look back at some of my favorite products just released.

Before I show you what I made, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the MFT team and to all of you who visited my blog this past week while I guested with them. You've all made this such a fun experience! I've been overwhelmed by the encouraging words left on my project posts and the kindness of the MFT staff (particularly Erica - you are a gem!)

On to today's project. I went a little quirky with this one...

Whenever I design for a company, I like to lay out everything I own made by that particular company. With all of the dies and stamps spread over my craft area (read: kitchen table) I couldn't help but pick up the new geek is chic glasses die-namics and then look at the circle die found in the new blueprints 18 die-namics set and think of creating a little face.

I die-cut the circle twice, both out of white cardstock, and free-handed a hairline out of one circle. I colored them using copic markers and die-cut the glasses out of black cardstock. The little dots for the eyes are tag holes, from the new tag talk die-namics set. Fun, huh? Actually, my favorite part are the glassy lenses: I filled the inside of the frames with glossy accents before setting the eyeballs inside :)

I adhered the striped cover up die-namic to the card base (in black, naturally... black and white stripes are oh-so-chic) but cut away one of the stripes to make room for the fun sentiment.

I don't know if you can tell, but I swiped a light blue marker inside each of the framed areas, between black stripes. I felt like it added a little extra depth to the whole thing.

And that's all for me! It's been grand, MFT - thank you so much for having me on as your August guest designer!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

It's MFT's new release day! As you read this, everything you need for halloween projects and more is available in the MFT store.

I love making things ahead of time. It doesn't happen often, but it makes me feel like I've got life under control :) I made a little halloween card set for my little 4 year old Maia to dole out to her preschool friends come Halloween.

First off, the finished package. I couldn't just give them to Maia, all willy-nilly in a plastic bag. I grabbed a clear card box (from Simon Says Stamp) and cut it down to my desired height (which is code for I can't remember how high the box is and I am writing up this post from our beach house in Virginia where there isn't a way to go back and check.) I then die-cut a spider web cover-up die-namics but didn't cut it all the way. The rest of the strip travels under and around the box to create a closure.

Inside, a collection of orange polka dotted envelopes, cut with the new envelope die from the you've got mail die-namics.

When she hands them out to her friends, this is what they'll see:

I closed the envelopes with a strip of washi tape each, and a dangling spider to pull on...

Yank the spider out for some halloween fun:

hee.

I used the centerpieces spooky window die-namics for the dangling spider and the spooky scene die-namics for the big "boo" punchline.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

I mixed a slew of new product together to create this one card: batty about you stamp set and matching die-namics, the small checkerboard stencil, the trick or treat die-namics, and the tag talk die-namics.

First off, I covered the background with the batty about you sentiment, keeping it a little random looking. More spooky that way, no? Then, I used their new checkerboard stencil on an oval die-cut. I stenciled in some orange ink, then moved the stencil over and sponged on more ink in a slightly darker orange. I'm in love with this stencil!

Does the bat-girl look a bit different to you? I couldn't resist doodling some extra hair, although she looks super cute without bangs too. I love how we can customize stamps to look a little different! The star on her shirt is from another new set, geek is chic. I achieved the polka dots on her shirt by way of a colorless copic blender.

The tag was the perfect size to ground our little bat-girl. I die-cut the boo sentiment into the tag, colored it in the same purple as her star and placed it back into the tag.

I hope you like what I've created! Visit the MFT blog for a list of participating blogs today!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

If you follow me on instagram, or even on the blog, you know that I've developed a little love for doodling. On the side, I've started to learn adobe illustrator so that I could have nice, stamp-like perfect images of my drawings.

Since our family is getting ready for the beach, I drew a beach girl and asked some of my favorite crafty friends to help me show her off:

Once I decided on her size and printed her out, I paired her with some beachy lawn fawn stamps, and got to coloring.

I love her princess-leia buns and the strawberries on her suit!

And, just to show what else you could do with a digi stamp, I printed off a larger version and decided to test her out as a blond:

A little more of a pop-art feel to this one! I paired her with the scripty hello die from lawn fawn and sponged purple ink to cover the background. Tip: print her out a 2nd time on thin computer paper, cut her out and paint the back of her head with a 2-way glue pen. When the adhesive dries, you have a mask to use for this kind of treatment.

It's hard to tell, but the purple panel is popped up on foam squares - even the little bits inside the scripty die-cut letters.

I hope you like her! Since I'm just growing my skills, I'm offering her as a free digi.

Friday, August 8, 2014

I am beyond thrilled to be guest designing with My Favorite Things this month! It's countdown week to their August release, and oh boy - they know how to do it up right. It was like Christmas in July when I opened my MFT box :)

I'm showing off a cute witch today: witch way is the candy and the matching die-namics, as well as the witch's cauldron die-namics and a little strip of the you've got mail stamp set. Everything will be available for purchase in the MFT store on August 12th.

When I saw that adorable witch, I knew I wanted to play around with her. She looks like she just cooked up some trouble, with her tiny mouth drawn like that! She naturally paired with the huge cauldron, and I used glossy accents on the potion bubbles. It looks perfectly slimy, hee hee.

To give the card a bit of balance, I reached for the airmail strip from you've got mail and stamped it in a bright orange.

I hope you like it! Visit the MFT blog for more of what's new and for more inspiration today!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

I am so pleased to be part of the CASE study 4th anniversary festivities! As they celebrate their 4th birthday, the CASE study team is bringing you special blog hops each week of this month, comprised of past muses and the design team (past and current.)

Each blog hop will be open until the next midnight of the following Tuesday (so, August 12th in this CASE!) and there are sponsors and prizes set up for playing along! You must comment on all blog posts along the way to be eligible for prizes from

Waffle Flower ♥ Serendipity Stamps ♥ Penny Black

The winners will be announced on the CASE study blog the following Wednesday.

I love the girl, holding her cake, with stuffies at her feet, the blue doily frame around her and the bunting in the background. I pulled out a dear lizzy stamp that my friend Wida sent me and got busy:

I think the trick to combining stamps from different companies is to pay attention to the width of their stroke - the dear lizzy stamp has a heavier outline, so I chose to pair it with the avery elle stamps, which also have a bit of uneven whimsy to them, so they work especially great together. The thinner-lined circle scribbles are in the background and in a lighter color, so they don't compete with the main stamps.

There's more to see on these blogs today, and a special thanks to Chupa for having me along with this amazing list of card-makers: